Sorry the mic sounds weird. No idea what's transpiring.

Please help keep this podcast free: https://www.patreon.com/grumpyseoguy

Principles covered:

Beginners don't understand that a big part of SEO has nothing to do with YOUR website.

SEO is not something YOU do to YOUR website.

SEO is not a checklist.

The 4 things you need to rank.

When two websites have perfect on page, who ranks? The one with greater authority.

Website attributes are the MINIMUM to even be considered to rank.

There are very few things you can do to your website to make you rank higher.

PROBABLY the reason you are not ranking is because you do not have enough authority compared to your competition (assuming everything else on your site is correct).

SEO is like a race.

Just because you improve doesn't mean you're going to rank higher.

Things that won't help you: dwell time, site loading speed, good content.

Mentioned episodes:

SEO Is a Competition, Not a Checklist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZo8Cdt3PnI

4 Things You Need to Rank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3L7tAil0Bg

Is This Lower Authority Website Actually Outranking This Higher Authority Website?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWgsq9UgYBY&pp=0gcJCXwKAYcqIYzv

4 Reasons Backlinks You Built Didn't Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_6viPUeUW4

EEAT, Content, Dwell Time - not ranking factors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9EzrCZ94NE